Qiang Huang  

I appreciate greatly to John MacDonald, a well known artist and teacher, who provided me the above information. John has a very important new letter about painting safety. If you are interested in reading it, please click following button.

Painting Safety

We artists enjoy the creativity of beautiful work, but at the meantime, we need to be aware of the potential danger of the toxicity of the material we use. I have learned the hard way. I hope you don't make the same mistake.

Medium:

I also want to get rid of all the solvents. I used to use odorless mineral spirit such as Gamsol. Now I do not want to use it anymore. Odorless does not mean it is safe. Press the button below you will get more information about the toxicity of solvents by Mary Bentz Gilkerson, another wonderful artist and teacher.

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The toxicity of pigments can be listed into 4 levels:

​A = Low hazard, but do not handle carelessly;

B = Possible hazard if carelessly handled, ingested in large amounts or over long periods of time;

C = Hazardous, use appropriate precautions for handling toxic substances;

D = Extremely Toxic, only attempt working with these pigments (especially the dry form) in laboratory like conditions.

Paints:

Following is a list of paints I used to use all the time, but now I will try my best to replace them.

Even we remove the toxic paints and solvents, I still recommend:

Always wear gloves when you paint.

Make sure you have a good ventilation for your studio.